Roger Federer saw off Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/1) on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors. Federer had to save a set point in the ninth game of the first set as Nieminen fought hard to try and win the first set of his career against the world No. 2 after losing 18 dating back to 2002 in Moscow.
Nieminen’s brave game failed him as Federer finally took the opening set and then recovered from an early break in the second for 4-4. He then raced away through a second decider to convert on the first of five more match points, advancing in just over 90 minutes.
The Finn now stands 0-10 in the series where he had said just to win a set might have felt like a victory as the pair played a repeat of last year’s final.
Italian Simone Bolelli, beat Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-2 while James Blake kept up his hopes of making the ATP season-ending championship when he defeated Spain’s Oscar Hernandez 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-4.
Second seed David Nalbandian needed nearly two and a half hours to subdue qualifier Kristof Vliegen, posting a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7/4) win.
■ ST PETERSBURG OPEN
AFP, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Andy Murray, top seed and defending champion, breezed past Ernests Gulbis of Latvia and into the last eight on Thursday.
Murray won 6-4, 6-2 in one hour one minute to record his second win over Gulbis in as many meetings.
Also on Thursday Serb Janko Tipsarevic ousted Jeremy Chardy of France in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) and Kazakhstani qualifier Andrey Golubev upset crowd favorite Marat Safin, winning 6-4, 6-2 to reach his first quarter-final.
Mischa Zverev of Germany upset another Russian Mikhail Youzhny, seeded fourth, 7-5, 6-4.
■ LINZ OPEN
AP, LINZ, AUSTRIA
Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic and No. 2 Vera Zvonareva eased into the quarter-finals with straight-sets wins on Thursday.
Ivanovic downed Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-4, 6-2 while Zvonareva routed Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 6-2, 6-0.
Zvonareva dropped serve in the opening set against Llagostera Vives and saved five more breakpoints, but was in control afterward.
Fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova defeated Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-4, 7-6 (7) to set up a quarter-final match against Agnieszka Radwanska.
Petrova was broken twice while serving for the match at 5-4 and 6-5, and the Russian missed four match points in the tiebreaker before finally converting.
Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine was the only unseeded player to make the quarter-finals by beating fourth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.
In other matches Marion Bartoli of France beat Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-3 and Flavia Pennetta of Italy defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-1.
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